Half a gearbox is better than none

Thank you for all the comments, good to see a photo - thank you Michael.

Whilst leaving Sydney I have been having frequent updates and in particular I would like to thank:
Smackers - can't wait till Perth
The Gillmans - so the cake was takee kosher l'Pesach
Mr B - you are truly excellent

Mission Beach was pleasant, it would have been great if we could go swimming but we were petrified of the various stingers (the beach had vinegar stations all along it); and even though it is mid winter it is bloody shwitzing there.

On Sunday we went white water and accidentally went on the extreme group. Good fun, jumping 4 m off a cliff into water is pretty scarey, the tully river has a huge amount of cannabis plants growing on the banks and some of the guides looked like they had been using a bit.

We stayed in a great youth hostel which was a huge tree house and then drove on to Cairns in the Hof.

I have mentioned the Hof before and now I mention it again. When we got to Mackay ( the day of the speeding fine) I had noticed that the revs were higher than normal and had thought perhaps we had a strong headwind, or were going uphill or ed had put on a bit of weight. That night we pulled into pizza hut and when I came to drive out the car wouldn't engage in reverse.

We told the all knowing youth hostel manager who said it was common and was probably the oil, certainly nothing major, in the morning he checked the oil - it was fine and so referred us to a garage managed by a friendly and expletive Turk. The turk's chief mechanic told us it was above them and referred us to the automatic mechanics (all the time we were being careful not to reverse or get ourselves into a situation that needed reverse). This mechanic asked if we had "lost any other gears" (sounds like faulty towers - how careless, I'm sure they'll turn up) to which i replied no.

It turns out we had lost 2nd and 4th as well - and so were left with 1st and 3rd. It's a common problem with these cars apparently. It wouldhave taken a day and half and 700 dollars to fix, ed and myself put our head together. This knowledgeable mechanic said it would get us the 50km to go sailing but he had no idea whether it would take us the 860km to cairns.

"If you're a gambling man..."

Luckily Ed remembered the module he had done at Cambridge on automatic gearboxes, so we started up the coast with half a gearbox.

There have been a few hairy times, one in particular when it wouldn't engage into 3rd and was howling in 1st; but the funniest has been :"putting it in reverse"
This involves putting it in neutral and ed getting out and pushing from the front - the funniest is always outside restaurants.

Then came to selling it in Cairns, we quickly realised that the knackers yard was the only place and the first one offered us 50 dollars - almost worth our while siphoning off the petrol (20 quid) but the third gave us 250 dollars (ebnough to pay the speeding fine!) and so now we are Hofless

Cairns is dire by day and alive by night.
We're saving the cultural bits for Friday( except Kingdom of God and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, both well worth seeing if you're ever in Cairns)! We have found the famous back packer bars where the alcohol is cheap and the entertainment base/lowest common denominator/ addictive.
Of note Ed came 3rd in Mr Backpacker and was noted for his dancing on the tables - only to be outdone by a "hombo".
Tomorrow we go to the reef
Today we saw some inland forests including a huge tree with impressive roots that are more than half of the tree and a waterfall which was more like USSR nuclear waste desposal site.
We've met a couple of really nice Israeli blokes in our hostel, and a few people who probably wouldn't qualify for care in the community!

Hope you're well
Saul